Fresh Water Muscles

Water-way to kick off the weekend! Lovely bright weather, great company, a beautiful rural setting, mud, coffee and biscuits, and a leader who likes puns; we really couldn't have asked for more at our community mission with Friends of Maidenhead Waterways (FoMW) this morning.

The GoodGymers attending today were Kanika, Sheila, Sol, and myself, but this report includes everyone at the work party in the shameless hope that they'll see the light and join us in our GoodGyming. Special mention to Gill, who even gave me her email address so that we can officially call this her first good deed - welcome Gill!

Three cheers for Sol, who litter picked on her walk to the task and very quickly filled a bag. It's only bin a month since she last did this, so it's really rubbish to see how quickly more litter has accumulated.

We started with the fun of donning PPE including waders, high vis, protective glasses and gloves and then set off across the road and over boggy ground to our destination - a stretch of the Widbrook that was more 'Weed' than 'brook'.

Our mission was to clear a 1.5m path through the reeds, allowing the water to flow freely into the town centre streams, whilst also taking care to have minimal impact on wildlife. After all, as our leader Dominic pointed out, we were 'watching a live stream'.

Dominic gave us an excellent safety briefing, including a warning that the water here can be ex-streamly deep. He demonstrated how to achieve 'pole position' using a rake handle to avoid 'that sinking feeling'. He warned that the alternative was to 'flounder and get pulled under' - yikes!

We approached the water tentatively, but were soon going with the flow and found that we could rake in the weeds fairly effectively whilst standing on plastic pallets and/or crawling around in the mud (my preferred method - only to be attempted in waders!)

We worked for a good couple of hours and made excellent progress - clearing a much longer stretch than I had imagined weed manage. We got pretty wet and mud-splattered in the process, but it was great fun, super satisfying and a fantastic workout too. No weedy arms here! In fact, we even saw some fresh water mussels...

A special mention to Paul from FoMW, who wore a wet suit and was like a human dredging machine. I would like to know the secret to his impressive stamina, but apparently 'what happens in his wet suit stays in his wet suit'. I would also like to know Gill's secret to keeping her trousers dry despite basically sitting in the stream. Kudos also to Phil from FoMW, who waded tirelessly to clear up in Paul's wake.

Everyone worked really hard and was very deserving of a hot shower afterwards. FoMW plan to have plenty more work parties on Saturday mornings between now and the Spring so keep an eye on the GoodGym listings for opportunities to get involved. You can also find out more about Friends of Maidenhead Waterways and keep in touch with them directly via their website.